Probie Mistakes
by Lawral
Summary: When McGee gets kidnapped while undercover it's up to Tony to find him.


**Chapter One**

McGee looked at Gibbs in an utter state of shock. He wasn't the one normally put on undercover assignments. That was Tony's job. He was the senior field agent. He'd spent months on an undercover assignment that even Gibbs didn't know about. McGee had really only been undercover as his alter-ego, Thom E. Gemcity and had Ziva and Lee as backup. This time he'd be on his own, visually at least.

"McGee!" Gibbs yelled, slapping him in the back of the head.

McGee's head lurched forward slightly from the impact and he blinked his eyes, biting back the sting. "Sorry, boss." He'd mumbled before resuming his internal battle with self-doubt.

"It is your area of expertise, McGeek." Tony said, biting into an apple as he too was facing the big screen.

The man's face barely registered in McGee's mind as he tried to remember what had lead them to the present situation of putting him undercover. He remembered the crime scene of the Navy Lieutenant's home. He'd been killed, obviously, and a highly classified naval program was now missing. McGee, of course, was the obvious choice to go undercover to retrieve said program.

Two days had passed and McGee found himself driving thru Georgetown in a rental car that had been rented under his undercover alias. He looked at the driver's license Abby had created for him: Thomas Horowitz. He groaned and looked at himself in the rear view mirror.

"Horowitz? Is she serious?" McGee said.

"Would you rather be Seymour Butts?" Tony's voice came over his earwig.

McGee rolled his eyes again. Tony was so immature in daily life; McGee was sure it didn't end after work hours either.

"You know, Seymour Butts? Classic phone gag from The Simpsons. Animated Comedy created by Matt Groening in 1989. Kids never age, puzzling really."

"Believe it or not, Tony. I do know who the Simpsons are." He turned down a deserted alley and stopped his car. He flashed the lights and then waited. "Are you on me?"

Tony groaned into his mic and gagged rather loudly. "Probie, I in no way would ever be on you."

Ziva punch his arm from the passenger's seat of the car they were parked in at the mouth of the alley. "Grow up, Tony."

"My words exactly, Ziva." McGee said. He saw a figure move out of a shadow and started walking toward him. "Ok, here we go."

He rolled down his window as the man approached and he leaned in the window. He shifted slightly, throwing a glance toward the back of the car as if checking to make sure he wasn't followed.

Ziva froze the image she was getting from the hidden camera. She quickly emailed the picture of the man to Abby for facial recognition. He seemed to be in his late 20's; he had his sweatshirt over his head, obviously trying to cover his auburn hair.

"You have it?" McGee questioned.

"Got the cash?" The man said.

McGee looked at the man, attempting to judge his honesty. Somehow playing the part of a non-criminal man trying to buy top secret stolen naval equipment was coming easily to him. Perhaps he had spent too much time around Tony.

"You get the money when I get the merchandise." McGee said, as butch as he could.

Inside the car, Tony started laughing. Ziva smiled as she looked thru the binoculars to McGee in the car. "He is good." Ziva said, from beneath the binoculars.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's been watching too many movies." Tony said.

Ziva lowered her gaze and turned toward him. "He is not you, Tony. He actually finds other ways to entertain himself besides movies."

"Ha! You mean, attempting to write his books based on us?"

"They are not so bad." Ziva said.

"Shh, what did he say?" Tony changed the subject.

"You'll get the merchandise when I get my money." The man had said, turning to walk away. "You have my number."

"Wait." McGee said, climbing out of his car.

"Don't do it, Probie. Get back in the car." Tony warned over their comm.

McGee followed the man toward the back of the alleyway. He couldn't lose the guy after all that had happened. He needed to find out if the guy actually had the stolen equipment or was just trying to steal the money. On the monitor of the computer Ziva was watching they saw McGee follow the guy further into the dark shadows. Tony tried again and again to tell McGee to stop following the guy and get back into his car. He was much safer there. Even thru the glass of their rolled up windows, Tony and Ziva heard the gunshot.

The two immediately jumped out of their car and ran for the alleyway. The car was still idling with the driver side door wide open. They drew their weapons and continued further into the alley where McGee had followed the mysterious man.

"Tony!" Ziva called over her shoulder.

He joined her and looked down at the place she was focusing on. It was McGee's cell phone. Over the speaker they could hear Gibbs calling out Tim's name. Tony and Ziva exchanged worried looks.

**Chapter Two**

Tony burst through the doors of the men's restroom. He stood in front of the mirror simply glaring at his own reflection. His self-loathing seemed to flow freely from one DiNozzo to another.

"Damn it, Probie!" He screamed, turning he slammed his fist into the paper towel dispenser. He groaned loudly as he grasped his hand in the other. The pain in his hand was only half registering in his head. He was to mad at McGee for following the guy and getting himself abducted.

He and Ziva had searched the alley and found an open door near the back left corner. They searched the building it led to but turned up empty handed. They'd returned to the Navy Yard short one agent.

Tony had spent the entire drive back home trying to figure out why McGee had felt the need to follow the guy. They could have always tried again the next night. Why hadn't he just ignored the feeling that he was losing his chance. Ziva had even felt the need to step out of character and didn't try to kill them on the drive back. Tony hadn't been up to driving after losing a fellow agent in the field. He'd lost Kate, he really didn't want to lose another friend on this job.

Tony bit back the shooting pain as he flexed his hand trying to ease the pain. It refused to dissipate and he started to think that maybe he'd accidentally broken his hand. What would Gibbs say if he'd lost an agent and the other broke his shooting hand all in the space of two hours.

He washed off his throbbing hand, trying to wash away the pain and any evidence that may have been left behind. He turned to get a paper towel and saw the big dent in the middle of the dispenser. He dried his hands and left as quick as possible before someone caught him in the room that was now disfigured slightly. He returned to his desk and found Ziva working already, she looked up a little when he returned. Tony sat down behind his desk and paused for a moment. The pain still wouldn't go away but he wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing he'd hurt himself. Once they found McGee, he'd pummel him for causing his hand to hurt.

"Tony…" Ziva started.

"Ziva." Tony interrupted her, throwing her a look that told her he really didn't want to talk about it.

Gibbs came into the room suddenly and started barking orders, as per the usual. "Ziva, get on McGee's electronic tracks. Tony, get a BOLO out on McGee and the suspect."

Tony started typing away without saying a word. He took the photographs that they'd taken from the hidden camera and attached them to the BOLO. Ziva had been attempting to find a way to track McGee from the tracking watch he'd been wearing.

"Gibbs, I-" Ziva started, attempting again to figure out McGee's computer program..

"Get Abby to help you." He fumed, pointing toward the rear elevator.

Ziva got to her feet and left the squad room to ask Abby's help in locating McGee. She walked into the lab, the sound of Abby's music blaring as usual but she was no where to be found.

"Abby." Ziva called out over the music. She suddenly saw a flash in the corner of her eye and had barely turned when two arms wrapped around her in a bone crushing hug. "Oh!"

"Did you find him yet?" Abby asked.

"Need to breathe, Abby." Ziva spoke.

"Oh, right, sorry." Abby said, releasing Ziva. "So?"

"Gibbs wants me to track his electronic tracks. I tried but I can not get McGee's…"

"Say no more." Abby said, going to her computer and pulling up the program needed.

Ziva joined Abby at the computer and watched Abby typing in the needed number. "You need to teach me how you and McGee do this?"

Abby smiled to her. Ziva was always eager to learn more. "Well as long as McGee's still wearing Gibbs' watch it should only take a minute."

McGee woke, his head throbbing and not able to move. He looked down and saw that he'd been tied to a chair. He groaned and blinked his eye trying to focus on the man in front of him. The man was sitting in front of him, calmly. He was sitting in a chair turned around backward with his arms crossed over the back of the car and McGee's Sig resting under the man's chin.

"What kind of nobody carries a federally issued Sig Sauer?" The man asked.

McGee had gotten his eyes to somewhat return their normal focus. "The kind that is a Federal Officer." McGee said, groaning.

"Federal Officer, huh. Let me guess, FBI?"

McGee rolled his eyes, they always thought that they were FBI. "NCIS."

The man stood up and laughed sarcastically to himself. "Great. Navy cops." He stopped in front of McGee and stared at him for a moment. "Who was the genius that put you undercover?"

"No one else would be able to understand the mechanics of that system you stole." McGee told the man. "Do you even understand it?"

The kidnapper's face change instantly and he reached out and hit him across the face. White stars erupted behind his eyes and pain shot from his nose straight to his brain. McGee grunted with the impact and he felt cold, wet liquid sliding from his nose.

**Chapter Three**

"Why is it not working?" Ziva groaned.

"How many times do I have to tell you guys that you can't rush science. Doesn't work that way." Abby said, typing away some more. Her face suddenly fell. "He hasn't activated it."

The two women cursed audibly and continued to look at the screen as if trying to intimidate it into showing McGee's location. Ziva looked toward Abby from the corner of her eye and was surprised to see the scientist suddenly reach out and shake her computer screen violently.

Ziva reached out her hand and put it on Abby's shoulder. Everyone knew how close Abby and McGee were. She understood Abby's frustration; McGee was missing and it was partly her fault. If she'd gone after McGee before their feed had gone blank maybe McGee would be up in the bullpen right now running another trace on the seller.

As it was, McGee was experimenting with being a human punching bag. The blood running from his nose was now joined by blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. He grunted as the man's fist connected with his jaw once again. He'd lost feeling in it two punches ago but it seemed that it was making the man feel better by causing McGee more pain. He knew he'd feel terrible tomorrow when feeling returned, if he made it that long.

"Ok," McGee panted. "Enough."

The man knelt level with Tim and looked at him with a smug look on his face. "Not so tough now are you, Fed?"

"You call tying someone to a chair and then beating them up, tough?" McGee countered.

The man's face contorted again and McGee braced himself for the punch he knew would follow his witty retort. However, it never came. McGee opened his eyes to see the man's smile staring back at him. McGee felt enormous hatred for the man in front of him and had he not been tied up, the man would probably be on the receiving end of some punches to the face.

"So who are you?" McGee asked him.

"Douglas Allen, boss." Tony reported to Gibbs, pulling up the photo of the man that had taken McGee. "Ex-enlisted Marine. Less than honorable discharge in 2002," He paused for effect. "For stealing company equipment. Highly sensitive files and attack plans."

"What kind of files, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, not looking up from his computer screen.

"Files much like the ones to that program he stole, boss."

"Go check on Abby and Ziva, see if they've found McGee yet." Gibbs said, climbing to his feet and making his way up the stairs to the Director's office.

Tony stepped off the elevator and walked toward the lab which, oddly enough, was silent. He stopped for a moment and poked his head in. The two women stood at the computer and where talking quietly to each other. Tony could only think of a few times when Abby's lab played no music.

"Everything alright in here?" Tony asked, stepping further into the room.

In an instant, Abby had thrown herself into Tony's arm as if trying to console him and make herself feel more confident at the same time.

"Tony! Ohmigosh, how did this happen? I mean, why was McGee stupid enough to follow that guy? Now he's got himself kidnapped and Ziva is giving up all hope."

"Hey," Ziva said in the background of Abby's babbling.

"And Gibbs' tracking device isn't turned on so I can't track him. But everything's going to be fine… somehow, we'll find him." She pulled back from her crushing hug and held Tony at arms length. "He will find a way to track him. I just know it… I just don't know how."

"We may not have to." Ziva said suddenly.

Abby turned and saw the program running suddenly, narrowing down from the city map further and further until an address shown in bright red letters. Tony looked at the computer screen as Ziva turned to smile at them.

"Call Gibbs, give him the address." Tony said to Abby as he and Ziva ran out of the room.

They made their way to the elevator and then to the parking garage. Somehow, as the doors opened, they saw Gibbs waiting for them on the other side. He looked at Tony and then to Ziva with his usual sly face. "What took you two so long?"

He led the agents toward a car near the end of the garage and climbed behind the driver's seat. Ziva took her place in the backseat and buckled her seatbelt as Gibbs drove. The twenty minute drive lasted all of twelve minutes. The trio got out of the car and was making their way toward the warehouse buildings when they heard a loud crack.

The three instantly drew their weapons and flattened themselves against the walls of the building as they reached one of the doors. Tony threw it open and Ziva turned pointing her weapon inside the door.

"Clear," she whispered.

**Chapter Four**

Ziva could hear voices behind a door near the end of the hall. She pointed toward the door as she looked to Tony and Gibbs. She moved to the other side of the door and put one hand on the doorknob as she waited for Gibbs to call for her to open the door.

Ziva heard a thunk that sounded very much like a fist connecting with a jaw. She wanted to raid the room without the go-ahead if it was who she thought was on the receiving end of a punch. Gibbs finally nodded his head and she pulled open the door quickly and the three agents entered the room, guns raised.

"NCIS! Drop the weapon!"

"Put your hands up!"

"NCIS!"

The calls filled the room. The man looked up quickly and trained his gun on McGee, strapped to the chair. McGee's head fell backwards as he looked at his rescuers. He breathed a sigh of relief that they'd finally found him but he did still have a gun aimed at his head.

"You're outnumbered. Put the weapon down." Gibbs told the man.

"I may be outnumbered but I'm much closer to my target." He'd taunted. "Want your agent back, you'll put your weapons down."

"Or I can just shoot you." Ziva said. "You'd be dead before you could think about pulling the trigger."

The man started laughing. "Gonna be out done by a chick?" He laughed to Gibbs and Tony.

"Chick?" Ziva cried.

Tony groaned and McGee mumbled, "Shouldn't have said that."

"Ziva. Put your weapon down." Gibbs said calmly.

Ziva hesitated for a moment but lowered her weapon anyway. She'd learned to trust Gibbs instinct. Or perhaps, he was keeping her from killing the man since they needed him to find the stolen program. She continued to glare at the man as he continued his threats on McGee.

"Good, now, two more and you can have your agent back." The man smiled.

"Not going to happen, dirt bag." Tony snarled.

"Oooh, not very nice." He laughed. "Hear that, mister agent man, he wants to get you killed. Some partner."

A gunshot rang out in the small room, a surprised groan and a thud of a body.

Gibbs lowered his weapon slowly; Tony lowered his as well; Ziva stepped forward and looked down at the man. The blood was flowing from the gunshot to his throat. She smiled softly, picked up her foot and ground it into his groan. He was lucky he was dead already.

The group gathered around McGee. Ziva started to look over his wounds while Tony began to untie him. Gibbs was looking over the man with a newfound respect. It now seemed that all of the members on his team had gone through a beating during the course of an investigation.

"There was no stolen program. He killed the Lieutenant and planted documents that belonged to a classified program that doesn't even exist. He wanted money all along. That was the only thing he was after."

Gibbs got off his phone from calling Ducky. He looked into McGee's face with a look of a worried father. "Hey, are you OK?"

McGee nodded his head. Despite the bloody nose and busted lip, he would recover. McGee suddenly felt a sharp smack against the back of his head and looked up to Tony in shock.

"Never, and I mean never, follow a suspect into the dark. Are you crazy?"

Tony gripped McGee's shoulder as Ziva started laughing. Even Gibbs had a smile on his face. The team was safe and intact; everything was back to normal.


End file.
